Bachman Turner Overdrive star Randy Bachman has teamed up with rock greats Neil Young, Peter Frampton and Billy Gibbons on his new album Heavy Blues. The release will also feature a collaboration with late blind blues great Jeff Healey. The album will be released in April (15).

Pioneering country guitarist Velma Smith has died at the age of 87. The musician passed away on Thursday (31Jul14) in Madison, Tennessee.
Smith began performing on a local Kentucky radio station with her sister Mildred at the age of 12 and later went on to play with the likes of Ernest Tubb, Carl Smith and Roy Acuff.
However, it wasn't until the late 1950s that her career really took off as she became the first female rhythm guitar player to perform on records cut in Nashville, Tennessee.
She worked with artists such as Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings and Ray Price and her song credits include Hank Locklin's Please Help Me, I'm Falling in 1960 and Skeeter Davis' The End of the World in 1962.
She was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville in January (14) as part of the Class of 2014, which also featured Peter Frampton, Buddy Guy and Randy Bachman from Bachman Turner Overdrive.
Smith was married to Price's pal, fiddle player-turned-producer James 'Hal' Smith, from 1948 until his death in 2008.

Bachman Turner Overdrive founder Tim Bachman has been charged with sexual assault. Canadian police have charged the guitarist with several sexual offences, including sexual assault, sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching, following an investigation into incidents that took place two decades ago, according to CBC News.
Bachman is currently free under the provision he must avoid contact with anyone under the age of 16.
Additionally, he has been ordered to stay away from public parks, schoolyards, swimming pools and other areas where minors are present, reports RollingStone.com.
Last year (13), an unidentified woman claimed Bachman had groped her while she was living with him as a foster child. He was found not guilty of the charges.
Bachman co-founded BTO with his brothers Robbie and Randy in 1973. He was a member of the rock group for six years, and rejoined in the early 1980s.
After turning his back on music in the early 1990s, Bachman became a real estate agent in Abbotsford, Canada.

Veteran rocker Peter Frampton and blues star Buddy Guy were inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Tennessee on Tuesday night (28Jan14). The British guitarist was one of 12 stars awarded medals at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium ahead of a celebratory concert, and there were also posthumous honours for Roy Orbison and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Also inducted during Tuesday's ceremony were Randy Bachman from Bachman Turner Overdrive, country singer Barbara Mandrell, country musician Jimmy Capps, and guitarists Corki Casey O'Dell, Velma Smith and Will Lee.
Posthumous inductions went to Vaughan and his blues rock band Double Trouble and pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith.
Speaking after the induction ceremony, Bachman says, "I don't like the word rock star or superstar. I am a guitar player, a songwriter who got lucky because I stayed at it and didn't give up, long enough that people noticed me."
Orbison received the Iconic Riff Award posthumously for his song Oh, Pretty Woman.

Rockers Bachman-Turner Overdrive are to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. The veteran band will be immortalised in Canadian music history by officials at the country's Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
The Winnipeg-based group was formed by Randy Bachman, who recruited his brother Robin Bachman and Fred Turner in 1973.
Known for hit songs such as You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet and Takin' Care of Business, the band has sold nearly 30 million albums worldwide.
Bachman-Turner Overdrive has won seven Juno Awards, Canada's top music prize, including group of the year in 1975 and 1976.
They will be inducted during the 2014 Juno Awards on 30 March (14).